City Lord's office (Purple City)
"What do you mean you haven't seen them? They should already have been there over thirty minutes ago,"
"I haven't seen or heard from them at all. I even sent people over to the restaurant and they haven't spotted them coming there. But I have someone waiting there just in case they show up," said a dignified-looking middle-aged man who had on black robes with a gold cloud pattern on them.
He had orange-red hair and his hair was tied in a daoist top knot.
"Make sure to tell me if they show up,"
"I will," said the red-orange-haired middle-aged man as he put down the communication talisman in his hand.
He slumped back in his chair as a tired sigh escaped his lips.
"I hope nothing happened, but even if it did it's not like a mere city lord can help. I shouldn't have accepted this post. Cultivating at the clan's verdant ancestral grounds is better than the headache Purple City brings," the red-orange-haired man sighed some more as he massaged his temples.
Just as he was about to close his eyes, his door got unceremoniously opened.
"DIDN'T I SAY NOT TO BE INTERRUPTED!" he madly roared as he brought forth the cultivation pressure of a tenth-stage core formation expert.
"Mmph, it seems little Hu has gotten bolder since becoming the city lord that he even doesn't put his old caretakers in his eyes anymore.
If I knew you'd turn out this way maybe I should have let that dark scythe mantis have its way with you back then," said an old man who walked in with another elderly lady by his side.
With a wave of his hand, the elderly man made the pressure that was bearing upon them disappear like a formless wind.
The red-orange-haired man on seeing the old couple hurriedly rose from his seat as he went over and offered a humble salute as he bent his waist.
"Nephew Duan Hu greets uncle master Wang Siyi and Aunt master Wang Huiyin," Duan Hu said as he faintly shivered.
While the old couple before him seemed old and harmless they were a source of nightmares to the soldiers of the Five Clover Kingdom.
Wang Siyi was a ferocious spear of carnage who tore through the defenses of the Five clover kingdom while his wife Wang Huiyin was the blade in the dark striking the enemies' key points when they least expected it.
Together they had caused endless grief to the ranks of the Five Clover Kingdom. However, their greatest act of notoriety was when they worked together to slaughter an up an coming young general of the Five clover kingdom who had just taken half step into the palace realm.
The young general had just gotten sudden enlightenment from battle and had thus decided to close himself off while in the camp rather than risk the chance opportunity escaping from him. He successfully improved his cultivation from the peak of core formation and took a half step into the palace realm. But before he could stabilize his realm and firm his findings he got attacked by the old couple.
The battle was ferocious and quick. Despite the old couple catching the general off-guard and in his weakest moment they still left the battle with serious life-threatening injuries however they had managed to kill a young talent who had high odds of reaching the palace realm.
Should that future have played out then the fragile balance being maintained by the Red Maple Empire and the Five Clover Kingdom would have tipped in the Five Clover Kingdom's favor.
The successful assassination proved to be an important win for the Red Maple Empire. While that earned the couple enormous merits within the Empire it was a different case on the Five Clover Kingdom's side.
They became so furious when they heard about the death that all their palace realm cultivators joined the battle at the border which triggered the Red Maple Empire to send their own which created a 5,000-kilometer blood bath that lasted for three months with no signs of abating.
It was only when the battle hit five months did it show signs of stopping because the casualties on both sides had grown too severe to the point it would create an opportunity for other enemies to take advantage of.
A temporary ceasefire was created. However, despite that, the hatred the Red Clover Kingdom had for the old couple didn't reduce. They put out a huge bounty on their heads in which they offered 50,000 high-grade spirit stones and a low-rank monarch-grade artifact along with the opportunity to cultivate in their five-clover garden.
Any one of these offers would drive those in the core formation and early palace stage experts insane especially the five clover garden that would have even attracted some middle-stage palace realm cultivators.
The garden was a blessed ground that had a natural formation created by five different clovers that symbolized the five elements; fire, wood, water, metal, and earth. The clovers combine to create a resonance that devolves into a natural formation that helps anyone who cultivates in the area to gain a deeper understanding in any of those elements. What they harvest from cultivating there depends on their powers of comprehension, their affinity to any of those elements, and the nature of their cultivation arts.
The appearance of that garden became the main catapult behind their sudden growth to the point that they were able to go toe to toe with the Red Maple Empire despite having a shorter history. Up until 10,000 years ago, they were just another rank 4 kingdom but they slowly grew to the point of threatening the Red Maple Empire.
Their palace realm cultivators grew to five in comparison to the Red Maple Empire's four. However, despite them having a higher number the palace realm cultivators from Red Maple Empire were all seasoned with the weakest one being a second-stage palace realm cultivator while those from the Five Clover Kingdom were either at the first or second level.
However, the increasing number of palace realm cultivators in just a span of 10,000 years showed the immense value of the five clover garden.
With it being added to the ante, every cultivator came out of the woodwork to claim the old couple's head. For their safety, they were taken out of the front lines, and resources were spent to help change their identities.
Their new identities landed them in Purple city as a couple running a restaurant together. Despite them being here for quite some time they have never interacted with each other to avoid drawing eyes.
City lord Duan Hu couldn't help but wonder what they wanted with him. The memories of when he served under them as an early-stage core formation expert flashed in his eyes as he stared at the couple before him. It was grandpa and grandma Wang.
…
"Little Hu, don't you feel like the crime rate in this city has been growing too much off late? Two of my favorite customers have been constantly harassed by one of those organizations, I think they call themselves the black viper. A third-rate organization with a fourth-stage core formation cultivation realm.
It shouldn't be difficult for the city guards to handle that right? It wouldn't do well for old people like us to have to step in and handle the matter personally when we have our good nephew here to help us," Grandpa Wang menacingly said as he narrowed his eyes.
"It will be taken care of Uncle master. I'll have Duan Changyin take care of it personally," the city lord nervously said.
"It isn't just the black viper, you need to eradicate the other underground organizations too and do a thorough mop up of it since a blood fiend cultivator was just apprehended from one of them," solemnly said Grandma Wang as she remembered the blood fiend cultivator kneeling by Yang Qing's feet.
"What?! Where is he?" the city lord urgently asked. A blood fiend cultivator was a walking calamity, especially in a highly populated city like the Purple city.
"He has already been apprehended by someone from the Order. By the way, we will be attacking the Mo family branch. One of their scions has ties with the black viper gang where the blood fiend cultivator was hiding.
Even if I think they're not stupid enough to collude with blood-fiend cultivators, one can never be too careful, especially with their unveiled ambitions for the throne.
So we just came to tell you beforehand so you can plan ahead and also inform the emperor. You've always been good at these sorts of things," Grandpa Wang said as he chuckled at the city lord's paling figure.
Just as the city lord was about to weakly support himself on his chair to process everything he just heard, an official rushed into his office with an even paler face like he had just seen a ghost.
An incredulous look appeared on the City lord's face as he dreaded what news made the official's face look like that.
Things were already bad as it is and he wasn't sure he had the stomach for more.
"City lord there's been an issue. The captain has just arrested all the scions of the noble families caught loitering around and he has thrown them in the dungeon.
A confrontation is about to happen between those families and the city guards. The city guards have already injured a few of their guards and it doesn't look like they're stepping down. It's almost as if they're wishing for a battle. City Lord Hu you need to step in before the chaos devolves further," said the official as he bowed.
The City lord froze on hearing what the official had to say. Seconds later he started laughing hysterically as he mumbled a few things.
"Missing emperor and envoy from the golden bamboo pavilion, blood fiend cultivators in the city, Mo family destruction, Order member in the city, facing off against underworld organizations and city guards going to war with other noble families hahaha!! I quit, hahaha! I quit. I don't want it anymore. No! No! No!.. What's going to come next? The capital has been burned to the ground and Purple city becomes the new capital..No, No, I need to get out."
The City lord went hysterical then seconds later he vomited blood and fell unconscious leaving a dumbfounded Wang couple and official.
"Maybe we came at a bad time," said Grandma Wang with pity in her eyes as she stared at the collapsed city lord.
